5 FAQ tagged with mods

How do I comment anonymously?

There is no anonymous comment function. If you want to add something to a thread but want it to remain unconnected to your account, you can use the contact form (bottom right of every page) to reach the moderators, and one of them can add it for you. (If instead you want to ask an anonymous question on Ask Metafilter, the procedure is here.)(tags: anonymouscommentsmodsprivacymetafilteraskmetafilteraskme ) December 11, 2012 - permalink - back to questions

I need to get in touch with a site admin in a hurry. How do I do this?

Here is a link to the Contact Form. It will reach whoever is working; this is the quickest way to get most problems resolved. When you use the contact form, an email is sent to all of the admins, and whoever is working will respond. The response will go to your email address, not to MeFi Mail.

Do not use MeFi Mail to get in touch with an admin in a hurry. Admins often disable MeFi Mail when they're not available to handle site issues.

The best way to reach a moderator is to use the contact form, which emails all of the mods. The site is staffed 24/7, and the contact form will reach whoever is on duty.

All the moderators are also regular site members, so you may see them around participating just like anyone else. When a moderator leaves an official moderation comment, the comment will appear [in small type, in square brackets], and a "staff" badge will appear in the byline next to their name. (This text is searchable, so you can find moderation comments by using your browser's "find" function to find the word "staff" on the page.) You can confirm someone is a moderator by looking at their profile page, too -- they'll have a "staff" badge under their profile picture.

Some history:
1999: MetaFilter was created by Matt Haughey (mathowie); he was the sole admin of the site for the first several years.
2005: Jessamyn West (jessamyn) was hired; she was especially instrumental in establishing the culture of the new subsite, AskMetafilter.
2006, May: Paul Bausch (pb), our technical wizard, joined to keep the back end running smoothly and do bugfixes and feature builds.
2007, March: Josh Millard (cortex) started helping out around the place.
2008, May: vacapinta became the unofficial "Midnight Mod", checking in a few times during the North American night.
2011, April: Jeremy Preacher (restless_nomad) came on, originally to keep an eye on things over the weekend, although gradually shifting to weekday hours too.
2011, October: taz joined the team as the first regular non-US mod, bringing civilization to the formerly-lawless hours of North American night.
2012, October: goodnewsfortheinsane and LobsterMitten joined the team as part-timers, with a few regular shifts and some flexible coverage for other mods' hours.
2014, May: Layoffs. Due to a budget crunch, jessamyn retired, and gnfti and LM were laid off. Over the next months, site members contributed enough money to keep the site operating and even bring back the laid-off mods at sharply reduced hours.
2015, March: Mathowie retired, still the owner but handing nearly all site operations over to cortex and the remaining mods. Cortex took over most operational stuff, and LobsterMitten took over mathowie's on-site mod hours.
2016, January: Eyebrows McGee joined the staff as a part-timer and often weekend mod.
2016, May: pb retired.
2016, May: frimble joined the staff as resident tech person.
2017, July: mathowie transferred ownership of MetaFilter to cortex.(tags: modsMetaFilteradminsmoderationaskmetafiltermetatalkfanfareprojectsirljobschataskmemusic ) March 20, 2006 - permalink - back to questions

Someone made a official-seeming comment in small type, with square brackets. What does that mean?

How can I tell if a comment was made by a moderator?

On MetaFilter and AskMetafilter, moderators use small type and square brackets to indicate they are making an "official" comment:

[Mod comments look like this.]

Moderators are also regular users of the site, and they also participate in threads in a non-official capacity. If you're not sure how a specific mod comment is meant, ask using the contact form. If you're not sure if someone is a moderator, see the list of moderators here.

On MetaTalk, moderators are identified by a little "staff" badge next to their username. The staff badge is always "on" in MetaTalk.

About MetaFilter

MetaFilter is a weblog that anyone can contribute a link or a comment to. A typical weblog is one person posting their thoughts on the unique things they find on the web. This website exists to break down the barriers between people, to extend a weblog beyond just one person, and to foster discussion among its members.